Aedilred
2016-05-12, 05:54 PM
There doesn't seem to be a lot of miniature painting on the forums so I thought I'd give it a go and see if it catches on. My painting is really nothing to write home about but I'm enthusiastic about my new project so hopefully that will make up for any lack of quality.
My army is intended to be an optimate army of the early-mid 1st century BC. The soldiers are likely to be fairly well-equipped on the whole, as its generals are well-connected and individually rich. Given the relatively low rate of change in equipment throughout the period, it would be suited to the later stages of the Social War, the Pontic Wars, or Caesar's civil wars, and may eventually see service in any of these roles. I hope to find models to represent specific optimate generals for the period, such as Sulla and Lucullus, but for some reason the most popular general produced by miniature companies is that scoundrel Caesar!
Traditionally the conflict between optimates and populares is characterised as “nobles vs the people” but inevitably things were a little more complicated than that. In fact, some of the leaders of the populares movement were themselves nobles: Crassus and the Gracchi were of noble background, for instance, while Cinna, Clodius, Catiline, and Caesar were each members of the most distinguished patrician families in Rome. Meanwhile some of those who aligned themselves with the optimates were of low birth: Cicero and Pompey Sr. were both of low birth, while Milo was of undistinguished family.
Perhaps a better way of looking at it is that the optimates represent the conservative faction, generally fighting to preserve the status quo and the traditions of the old Republic – even if at times this involves forcibly changing the status quo to what they think it should be! This tended to align with the landed interests who effectively controlled much of the political arena. Meanwhile the populares were revolutionaries seeking to realign, or even overthrow, the existing political order, and redistribute wealth and power.
During the late second century BC a series of radical populares attempted to enact reforms on Rome, the most successful of whom was a chap called Gaius Marius. The best Roman general of his day, he was elected consul an unprecedented seven times and was the leading political figure for years, as well as Rome's go-to man in a crisis. The politics of the Marian era are complicated and I shan't get into them here, but most significantly for the tabletop gamer, Marius enacted some military reforms which changed the way Roman armies were constituted – or at least so the conventional histories have it, but Roman sources often uncritically attribute all their military reforms to “great reformers” when in reality they might have reflected more gradual changes. In any case most gamers draw a distinction between Roman armies of the mid-Republic and “Marian” armies after 107 BC.
Roman military equipment of the later Republic changes rather less than might be imagined from that distinction, though. Marius's reforms of 107 BC reorganised the legion into cohorts, abandoning the manipular system, and introduced more central funding rather than relying on individuals to purchase their own equipment, but while the legionaries now took the field in new formations they still wore largely the same kit as many of them had previously. A Marian legionary was equipped almost identically to an old soldier of the principes or a well-armoured hastatus. While the velites were no longer comprised of junior Roman citizens the army still made use of auxiliary skirmishers in the same role, wearing near-identical equipment. The major difference to infantry formations came with the conclusion of the Social War which effectively abolished the Italian allied legions, making them part of the Roman legions proper, and the elimination of the veteran triarii who were likely in any case always relatively few in number.
What this means for me is that I'm hoping to get away with using some pre-Marian models in this army with only some minor conversion work. This will give the army a bit more variety, and also possibly make it cheaper to collect!
The units are built for the Warlord Games ruleset Hail Caesar (inappropriately) but could probably be used in a variety of rulesets.
I do apologise for the quality of this first batch of photos. Hopefully the light will be better over the next couple of days and I'll be able to take some without using the flash. My painting may be nothing to write home about but the flash alays makes it look worse than it is!
My first unit of legionaries:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y287/athelassan/IMG_2144.jpg
These are plastics from Warlord Games and are pretty good if on the expensive side for historical plastics (RRP £22 for 24 figures), but as it happens I got this box “free” with the rulebook so I can't complain. At a 1:30 conversion rate this unit represents a full-strength cohort. The remaining eight figures will round out another cohort later on. Their bases need a little attention where I will add some static grass before varnishing.
Slingers from the Balearic islands were widely considered the best on the Med and accompanied Roman armies into battle for generations. In more modern times I've also spent many happy holidays on those islands, so they make up my first units of auxiliaries.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y287/athelassan/IMG_2149_1.jpg
This first group is from Warlord Games again, metal this time.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y287/athelassan/IMG_2155.jpg
And this group from Victrix plastics. At RRP £1.50ea for the metals as opposed to £1ea for the plastics the metals are a little more expensive, but I got them from ebay at a discount. The plastics are still fairly expensive by plastic standards, and are noticeably bigger than the metals, which are really rather on the small side. Hopefully by the time they're deployed there will be some other troops between them and the difference will be less noticeable. I have four spare plastic slingers which I'll decide what to do with later: if I decide to pick up another bag of Victrix slingers then I'll have enough in total for three units.
My first commander figures: these are military tribunes. There are six per legion but only one has a real military rank; the rest are staff officers. These three guys are equestrian tribunes so not real legion commanders, but in the absence of a legate they could step into the breach.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y287/athelassan/IMG_2154.jpg
These are metal figures from Wargames Foundry and I found them great fun and very rewarding to paint. Further down the line I might get another pack of these for decorating senior commanders' bases. I still have three from this pack who will join the army in due course. They're more expensive than standard infantry but I find them very characterful.
Next: more auxiliaries
My army is intended to be an optimate army of the early-mid 1st century BC. The soldiers are likely to be fairly well-equipped on the whole, as its generals are well-connected and individually rich. Given the relatively low rate of change in equipment throughout the period, it would be suited to the later stages of the Social War, the Pontic Wars, or Caesar's civil wars, and may eventually see service in any of these roles. I hope to find models to represent specific optimate generals for the period, such as Sulla and Lucullus, but for some reason the most popular general produced by miniature companies is that scoundrel Caesar!
Traditionally the conflict between optimates and populares is characterised as “nobles vs the people” but inevitably things were a little more complicated than that. In fact, some of the leaders of the populares movement were themselves nobles: Crassus and the Gracchi were of noble background, for instance, while Cinna, Clodius, Catiline, and Caesar were each members of the most distinguished patrician families in Rome. Meanwhile some of those who aligned themselves with the optimates were of low birth: Cicero and Pompey Sr. were both of low birth, while Milo was of undistinguished family.
Perhaps a better way of looking at it is that the optimates represent the conservative faction, generally fighting to preserve the status quo and the traditions of the old Republic – even if at times this involves forcibly changing the status quo to what they think it should be! This tended to align with the landed interests who effectively controlled much of the political arena. Meanwhile the populares were revolutionaries seeking to realign, or even overthrow, the existing political order, and redistribute wealth and power.
During the late second century BC a series of radical populares attempted to enact reforms on Rome, the most successful of whom was a chap called Gaius Marius. The best Roman general of his day, he was elected consul an unprecedented seven times and was the leading political figure for years, as well as Rome's go-to man in a crisis. The politics of the Marian era are complicated and I shan't get into them here, but most significantly for the tabletop gamer, Marius enacted some military reforms which changed the way Roman armies were constituted – or at least so the conventional histories have it, but Roman sources often uncritically attribute all their military reforms to “great reformers” when in reality they might have reflected more gradual changes. In any case most gamers draw a distinction between Roman armies of the mid-Republic and “Marian” armies after 107 BC.
Roman military equipment of the later Republic changes rather less than might be imagined from that distinction, though. Marius's reforms of 107 BC reorganised the legion into cohorts, abandoning the manipular system, and introduced more central funding rather than relying on individuals to purchase their own equipment, but while the legionaries now took the field in new formations they still wore largely the same kit as many of them had previously. A Marian legionary was equipped almost identically to an old soldier of the principes or a well-armoured hastatus. While the velites were no longer comprised of junior Roman citizens the army still made use of auxiliary skirmishers in the same role, wearing near-identical equipment. The major difference to infantry formations came with the conclusion of the Social War which effectively abolished the Italian allied legions, making them part of the Roman legions proper, and the elimination of the veteran triarii who were likely in any case always relatively few in number.
What this means for me is that I'm hoping to get away with using some pre-Marian models in this army with only some minor conversion work. This will give the army a bit more variety, and also possibly make it cheaper to collect!
The units are built for the Warlord Games ruleset Hail Caesar (inappropriately) but could probably be used in a variety of rulesets.
I do apologise for the quality of this first batch of photos. Hopefully the light will be better over the next couple of days and I'll be able to take some without using the flash. My painting may be nothing to write home about but the flash alays makes it look worse than it is!
My first unit of legionaries:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y287/athelassan/IMG_2144.jpg
These are plastics from Warlord Games and are pretty good if on the expensive side for historical plastics (RRP £22 for 24 figures), but as it happens I got this box “free” with the rulebook so I can't complain. At a 1:30 conversion rate this unit represents a full-strength cohort. The remaining eight figures will round out another cohort later on. Their bases need a little attention where I will add some static grass before varnishing.
Slingers from the Balearic islands were widely considered the best on the Med and accompanied Roman armies into battle for generations. In more modern times I've also spent many happy holidays on those islands, so they make up my first units of auxiliaries.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y287/athelassan/IMG_2149_1.jpg
This first group is from Warlord Games again, metal this time.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y287/athelassan/IMG_2155.jpg
And this group from Victrix plastics. At RRP £1.50ea for the metals as opposed to £1ea for the plastics the metals are a little more expensive, but I got them from ebay at a discount. The plastics are still fairly expensive by plastic standards, and are noticeably bigger than the metals, which are really rather on the small side. Hopefully by the time they're deployed there will be some other troops between them and the difference will be less noticeable. I have four spare plastic slingers which I'll decide what to do with later: if I decide to pick up another bag of Victrix slingers then I'll have enough in total for three units.
My first commander figures: these are military tribunes. There are six per legion but only one has a real military rank; the rest are staff officers. These three guys are equestrian tribunes so not real legion commanders, but in the absence of a legate they could step into the breach.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y287/athelassan/IMG_2154.jpg
These are metal figures from Wargames Foundry and I found them great fun and very rewarding to paint. Further down the line I might get another pack of these for decorating senior commanders' bases. I still have three from this pack who will join the army in due course. They're more expensive than standard infantry but I find them very characterful.
Next: more auxiliaries